As President Obama was minutes away from announcing new security measures for airports and airlines, the baggage area Minneapolis St. Paul Airport was being evacuated this afternoon, apparently because of a suspicious package.

3:04 p – From @jamielawler: ” Half the airport is sealed off. no one going through security, no bags coming out.”

3:12 p - I’m listening to the MSP tower. It’s relatively quiet other than TV helicopters talking to the tower, which suggests flights are being affected. Some flights are landing, however. Flights appear to be departing.

3:23 pm - MPR’s Tim Nelson reports people are going back through security lines, they’re reopened tickeiting area where hundreds are waiting in line and people are moving into the TSA screening area. There’s a helicopter over the airport, they’ve closed the east skyway connecting the parking ramp with the ticketing lobby.

3:29 p.m. – I’m seeing several Delta flights leaving the gates 10 minutes early. Chatter is picking up on the tower and ground frequencies at the airport. Things appear to be returning to normal.

3:32 p.m. – MPR’s Elizabeth Dunbar reports security check points 1, 2 and 3 were closed, along with a couple of concourses and the north side of the baggage claim area. Carrie Harmon, a spokeswoman for TSA, said the bomb squad were examining the suspicious package.

3:46 p.m. - Obama: The U.S. government has sufficient information to … thwart the Christmas Day attack but failed to connect the dots. It wasn’t a failure to collect the intelligence, it was a failure to integrate it.

3:49 p.m. – Obama: Will announce further steps to disrupt attacks including better screening. Says the incident will not change the decision to close Guantanamo Day. “There’s an ongoing security situation in Yemen which we have been confronting for some time. We will not transfer additional detainees back to Yemen at this time.”

4:02 p.m. – A briefing at the airport just ended. It turns out the suspicious bag was the one the baggage handlers send down the belt to notify people that the last bag has been unloaded. MPR coverage will be updated here.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts where he was vice president of programming for Berkshire Broadcasting Company. Previously, he was an editor at the RKO Radio network in New York, and WHDH Radio in Boston. He is the founder of the MPR News’ website.

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The STrib is reporting that an airport in California is shut down due to a bag testing positive for TNT chemicals.

Is something suspicious going on?

Tyler

Oops, sorry. Didn’t see your first link, Bob. Still makes you wonder though.

In a somewhat unrelated thought, did anyone ever find out who placed the box bombs in Princeton late last year? I know 2 kids were arrested for the mailbox bombs, but I never heard anything about the boxes placed near the post office and civic building.